Thursday, July 21, 2011

Things are in the works on this ole' blog of mine. I'm gearing up for a total blog redesign and the move to a self-hosted site. (In non-geeky language, that means it won't say "blogspot" after atriptoholland when you visit this website.)

Let me tell you what I've learned. Redesigning a blog and moving it is not easy. No siree. It should be handled by professionals.

Do you know how much professionals cost?

No? I didn't either, until I'd spent two days alternately sweating and crying and learning programming language and telling my children to, "Keep watching movies! Go ahead, watch as many movies as you want! Just don't bother mommy while she's trying build a website." After two days of that, I decided I should find out how much it would cost to hire a professional.

Too much! Too much for me, that is. After all, I'm blogging for free, here. And I'm supposed to be a do-it -herself, thrifty kind of blogger, aren't I? Hello, I spray painted a lamp!

And that didn't turn out too badly, did it? So, I took a deep breath, and I've been taking it one day and one code error and one style sheet at a time. And today I actually think I began to figure out what I'm doing. And instead of sitting at the computer all day, I cleaned house and took my children swimming. Maybe--just maybe--in a few days or months or years (this is me, remember?) this blog will have a whole new look.

Any maybe--just maybe--by the time I get to that point, I'll be a professional and someone can hire me to redesign their website. Because, from what I can tell, that job pays pretty well.

3 comments:

You may be too far down the road to want to hire someone now, but I used a wonderful and inexpensive professional to design and launch my blog. He also helped me after when I had a million questions about how to do stuff. If you want his name and number, I'd be happy to pass it along.

The Quote that Really Inspires Me:

"You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter. "What you create doesn’t have to be perfect. So what if the eggs are greasy or the toast is burned? Don’t let fear of failure discourage you. Don’t let the voice of critics paralyze you—whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside. "If you still feel incapable of creating, start small. Try to see how many smiles you can create, write a letter of appreciation, learn a new skill, identify a space and beautify it." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "Happiness, Your Heritage"